Oil Companies together with the Bush and Trump administration have kept the global warming debate alive long after most scientists believed that global warming was real and had potentially catastrophic consequences. We need to be aware and to change this policy before we get to the point of no return............Amor Patriae

ECOLOGY AND ENERGY PRODUCTION

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Is this alien communication? Mystery cosmic burst captured LIVE:Images reveal the size of stars, planets and moons in relation to our planet

Astronomer creates images to reveal the size of stars, planets and moons in relation to our planet

Pictures were created by Lancashire-based amateur astronomer John Brady

They show Earth’s size relative to the sun, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter

In one image, North America is shown how it would look on the red planet

Another reveals how tiny Earth is when placed next to the sun

Earth would fit across the width of Saturn’s rings six times

While Mars’ Olympus Mons would cover the state of Arizona

It can be difficult to grasp just how vast the universe and its planets and stars are - especially in relation to Earth.

But now one amateur astronomer has attempted to reveal the scale of objects in our galaxy by overlaying Earth’s continents, and our world itself, on celestial objects.

One image reveals how Earth would fit across the width of Saturn’s rings six times over, while Mars’ Olympus Mons is also shown to be the same size as the state of Arizona.

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The pictures were created by Lancashire-based amateur astronomer John Brady and show Earth’s size relative to the sun, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. In his first image, he shows how a neutron star’s size compares to the north west of England, between Liverpool and Warrington (shown)

The pictures were created by Lancashire-based amateur astronomer John Brady

‘The vast majority of objects out there in the universe are pretty big so it can be difficult sometimes to get your head round their actual size,’ explained Mr Brady on website Astronomy Central.

‘Here you’ll see how some space stuff out there compares to Earth stuff down here.’

In his first image, he shows how a neutron star’s size compares to the north west of England, between Liverpool and Warrington.

WIDTH OF THE CELESTIAL OBJECTS

Neutron star: 12 miles (20km)

Olympus Mons: 374 miles (624km)

Jupiter’s moon Io: 1,942 miles (3,636km)

Mars: 4,220 miles (6,792km)

Earth: 7,918 miles (12,742km)

Saturn: 72,367 miles (116,464km)

Jupiter: 88,846 miles (142,984km)

Saturn’s rings: 175,000 miles (282,000km)

The Sun: 864,950 miles (1,392,000km)

But Mr Brady added that a neutron star, such as the one pictured, is 1.5 times the mass of the sun despite its relatively small size.

‘So dense in fact that just a teaspoon of it would weigh over a billion tonnes,’ continued Mr Brady.

Another image, this time of North America, shows how the Martian volcano Olympus Mons would obscure the state of Arizona.

Located in the Tharsis Montes region of Mars, Olympus Mons is the biggest volcano in the solar system.

It is taller than three Mount Everest’s above sea level and is 374 miles (624 km) across.

Jupiter’s moon Io, meanwhile, would cover almost the entirety of North America.

‘Looking like a cheese pizza’ according to Mr Brady it would fit snugly between San Francisco and Detroit.

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This illustration shows how the Martian volcano Olympus Mons would obscure the state of Arizona. Located in the Tharsis Montes region of Mars, Olympus Mons is the biggest volcano in the solar system

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Jupiter’s moon Io, meanwhile, would cover almost the entirety of North America. ‘Looking like a cheese pizza’ according to Mr Brady it would fit snugly between San Francisco and Detroit

Io is the first of Jupiter’s four main Galilean moons and for this reason it is pushed and pulled by the planet’s intense gravity.

This has made it the most volcanically active place in the solar system, including Earth, with hundreds of volcanoes known to be active on its surface.

Mr Brady then shows how Mars, which is about half the size of our planet, would comfortably cover the whole of North America with plenty of room to spare.

But in comparison to Jupiter North America would be dwarfed by a create margin; the continent appears as just a speck on the vast cloud bands of the gas giant.

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Mr Brady then shows how Mars, which is about half the size of our planet, would comfortably cover the whole of North America with plenty of room to spare

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But in comparison to Jupiter North America would be dwarfed by a great margin; the continent appears as just a speck on the vast cloud bands of the gas giant

In fact our planet’s diameter is 11 times smaller than the gas giant, which has lightning bolts 1,000 times more powerful than those on our own.

Zooming further our, Mr Brady then compares Earth to Saturn. Our planet would fit six times over into the width of the rings, which span a whopping 175,000 miles (282,000km) wide.

And if our planet took the position of Saturn, the our planet sit in the middle 41,600 miles (66,900km) away from the rings.

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Zooming further our, Mr Brady then compares Earth to Saturn. Our planet would fit six times over into the width of the rings, which span a whopping 175,000 miles (282,000km) wide

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And if our planet took the position of Saturn, we would sit in the middle 41,600 miles (66,900km) away from the inner edge of the rings, which then extend much further into space

‘Across the Sun’s disk you could fit 109 Earths side by side, and to fill the Sun’s volume would take 1,300,000 Earths.’

He continues: ‘The Sun puts out more energy in one second than has ever been produced in all of human history, and loses four billion tonnes of material into space every second but has enough to last for another five billion years.

‘A solar flare, an explosion from the Sun’s surface caused when hugely powerful magnetic fields break apart under stress, can have the power of a billion Hiroshima bombs.’

All the images serve to show just how our planet compares to other objects in space.

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Compared to the Sun, our planet is even more dwarfed. ‘At the Sun’s scale, Earth is now really starting to look puny,’ explains Mr Brady. ‘Across the Sun’s disk you could fit 109 Earths side by side, and to fill the Sun’s volume would take 1,300,000 Earths’

Is this alien communication? Mystery cosmic burst captured LIVE

we could be closer to understanding its meaning

This is the first time a 'fast radio burst' has been captured in real-time

These are cosmic chirps that last for only a thousandth of a second

No one knows where these bursts come from, but possibilities range from black holes to alien communication and mergers of neutron stars

The mystery light was captured by the Parkes telescope in Australia

'Identifying the origin is now only a matter of time,' scientists claim

Astronomers have for the first time seen a 'fast radio burst' – a short, sharp flash of radio waves from an unknown source – tearing through space.

The discovery brings scientists a step closer to understanding the strange 'alien' phenomenon, which astronomers worldwide are vying to explain.

Lasting only milliseconds, the first such radio burst was discovered in 2007 by astronomers combing the Parkes telescope data archive for unrelated objects.

Scroll down for video

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Astronomers have for the first time seen a 'fast radio burst' – a short, sharp flash of radio waves from an unknown source – tearing through space. The discovery brings scientists a step closer to understanding the strange 'alien' phenomenon, which astronomers worldwide are vying to explain

Exactly what may be causing these cosmic chirps represents a major new enigma. Possibilities range from evaporating black holes to alien communication and mergers of neutron stars.

Six more bursts, apparently from outside our galaxy, have now been found with Parkes and a seventh with the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.

'We're the first to catch one in real time,' said Emily Petroff, a PhD candidate co-supervised at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

'These bursts were generally discovered weeks or months or even more than a decade after they happened.'

Lasting only milliseconds, the first such radio burst was discovered in 2007 by astronomers combing the Parkes telescope (pictured) data archive for unrelated objects

Banking that she'd spot a 'live' burst, Ms Petroff had an international team were poised to make rapid follow-up observations, at wavelengths from radio to X-rays.

After Parkes saw the burst go off the team swung into action on twelve telescopes around the world – in Australia, California, the Canary Islands, Chile, Germany, Hawai'i, and India – and in space.

WHAT ARE FAST RADIO BURSTS?

First discovered in 2007, 'fast radio bursts' continue to defy explanation. These cosmic chirps last for only a thousandth of a second.

Possibilities of what causes them include a range of exotic astrophysical objects, such as evaporating black holes, mergers of neutron stars, or flares from magnetars - a type of neutron star with extremely powerful magnetic fields.

'Another possibility is that they are bursts much brighter than the giant pulses seen from some pulsars,' notes James Cordes, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University and co-author of the new study.

So far seven more bursts, apparently from outside our galaxy, have now been found with Parkes telescope and a seventh with the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.

No optical, infrared, ultraviolet or X-ray counterpart showed up.

'That in itself rules out some possible candidates, such as long gamma-ray bursts and nearby supernovae,' said team member Dr Mansi Kasliwal of the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, California.

But short or low-energy gamma-ray bursts and giant flares from distant magnetars - the most magnetic stars in the universe - are still contenders, she added.

So too are imploding neutron stars.

One of the big unknowns of fast radio bursts is their distances.

The characteristics of the radio signal – how it is 'smeared out' in frequency from travelling through space – indicate that the source of the new burst was up to 5.5 billion light-years away.

'That means it could have given off as much energy in a few milliseconds as the sun does in a day,' said team member Dr Daniele Malesani of the University of Copenhagen.

The burst left another clue as to its identity, but a puzzling one.

Parkes's real-time detection system captured its polarisation – something that had not been recorded for previous bursts.

Polarisation can be thought of as the direction electromagnetic waves, such as light or radio waves, 'vibrate'. It can be linear or circular.

The radio emission from the new fast radio burst was more than 20 per cent circularly polarised – which hints that there are strong magnetic fields near the source.

Identifying the origin of the fast radio bursts is now only a matter of time.

'We've set the trap,' said Ms Petroff. 'Now we just have to wait for another burst to fall into it.'

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The Parkes Observatory, also known informally as 'The Dish' is a radio telescope observatory, located north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia

Hubble's sharpest ever image of Andromeda shows more than 100 MILLION stars in detail - and reveals hints of an ancient collision

The image shows a distance of 40,000 light-years across Andromeda - around a third of the galaxy

It has 1.5 billion pixels, meaning you would need more than 600 HD TVs to display the whole image

Image hints at an older wave of starbirth that had previously only been spotted in one area of the galaxy

This suggests a collision with another galaxy may have battered Andromeda two billion years ago

Groups of blue stars in galaxy show locations of star clusters and star-forming regions in the spiral arms

The sharpest and largest image ever taken of the Andromeda Galaxy - the nearest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way - has been revealed by astronomers.

It shows more than 100 million stars and thousands of star clusters embedded in a section of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disc stretching across over 40,000 light-years.

The sweeping view, which reveals one third of our galactic neighbour, also suggests that the galaxy may have been battered by a collision with another galaxy two billion years ago.

Click on the image to zoom in

Benjamin Williams of the University of Washington in Seattle told Nature that the image hints at an older wave of starbirth that had previously only been spotted in one area of Andromerda.

‘No one would have guessed it was galaxy-wide’, he said, suggesting there may have been a major collision in the galaxy’s history.

The panoramic image has 1.5 billion pixels — meaning you would need more than 600 HD television screens to display the whole image.

It traces the galaxy from its central galactic bulge on the left, where stars are densely packed together, across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outskirts of its outer disc on the right.

The large groups of blue stars in the galaxy show the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions in the spiral arms, while the dark silhouettes of obscured regions trace out complex dust structures.

Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda's evolution over billions of years.

Scroll down for the video

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This image shows dust lanes, which are bands of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of a brighter object. Other features, including stellar clusters, Milky Way stars, and star-forming regions are highlighted. The large groups of blue stars in the galaxy show the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions in the spiral arms

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This image, captured by Hubble, is the largest and sharpest image ever taken of the Andromeda galaxy, otherwise known as M31. This is a cropped version of the full image and has 1.5 billion pixels. You would 600 HD television screens to display the whole image

WHEN THE MILKY WAY AND ANDROMEDA COLLIDE: STUNNING SIMULATION REVEAL THE FATE OF OUR GALAXY

It’s widely accepted than in 5 billion years our Milky Way will collide with the nearby Andromeda galaxy - but what will happen when it does?

In a new simulation revealed in September, scientists showed the intricate process that will take place, with the two central supermassive black holes merging into one. And the newly formed super-galaxy, dubbed ‘Milkomeda’, will also ultimately spell disaster for Earth as our planet is flung out into interstellar space.

The simulation was created by a number of institutions led by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (Icrar) in Western Australia. In the simulation it can be seen how the two galaxies will interact as they approach each other.

First, in a tentative meeting, they will ‘swoop’ past each other, possibly disrupting some of the orbits of stars in the arms of each spiral galaxy. Then, after separating, the two galaxies will accelerate towards each other again.

As Andromeda is larger than the Milky Way, with one trillion stars in the former compared to about 300 billion in the latter, it will technically be the one ‘eating’ our galaxy.

The Milky Way is also expected to ‘eat’ two nearby dwarf galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, at some point in the future.

The Andromeda Galaxy is a large spiral galaxy - a galaxy type home to the majority of the stars in the universe – and the clarity of these observations will help astronomers to interpret the light from the many galaxies that have a similar structure but lie much farther away.

Because the Andromeda Galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth it is a much bigger target on the sky than the galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away.

Its full diameter on the night sky is six times that of the full moon. To capture the large portion of the galaxy seen here — over 40 000 light-years across — Hubble took 411 images which have been assembled into a mosaic image.

This panorama is the product of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (Phat) programme.

Images were obtained from viewing the galaxy in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard Hubble.

This view shows the galaxy in its natural visible-light colour as photographed in red and blue filters.

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This wide-field view shows the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) along with its companions M32 (below centre) and NGC 205 (upper right). The extend of the new PHAT survey of Andromeda using the Hubble Space Telescope is shown by the irregularly shaped region and the main image presented here by the rectangle within it

A compass image of Andromeda showing its position in the sky. The large box is the area that Hubble imaged. Because the Andromeda Galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth it is a much bigger target on the sky than the galaxies Hubble routinely photographs

Oil Companies together with the Bush and Trump administration have kept the global warming debate alive long after most scientists believed that global warming was real and had potentially catastrophic consequences. We need to be aware and to change this policy before we get to the point of no return............Amor Patriae

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he was given. But up to now he has not been a creator, only a destroyer. Forest keep dissapearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined, and the land grows poorer and uglier everyday.....Anton Chekhov

Gen. Gregorio del Pilar, P.A.

From morning till noon he repealed charge after charge tenaciously with a handful of men through the heat and agony of battle till he fell dead among his slained soldiers, On this mountain summit overlooking the plains and shores of his country a massive tremendous altar......